Ottoman labour battalions (, , , , ) were a form of

unfree labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms o ...

in the late

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. The term is associated with the disarmament and murder of Ottoman Armenian soldiers during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, of

Ottoman Greeks Ottoman Greeks (; ) were ethnic Greeks who lived in the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), much of which is in modern Turkey. Ottoman Greeks were Greek Orthodox Christians who belonged to the Rum Millet (''Millet-i Rum''). They were concentrated in ...

during the

Greek genocide The Greek genocide (), which included the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia, which was carried out mainly during World War I and its aftermath (1914–1922) – including the T ...

in the Ottoman Empire and also during the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

Overview

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire relied on the labor battalions for the logistical organization of the army. The Empire had a scarce railway infrastructure at the time. According to Hilmar Kaiser, men assigned to the battalions varied between 25,000 and 50,000, depending on whether it was war or peace. The laborers were assigned to perform construction works on the roads and railways and to transport the supplies the army needed in the battle front. Most of the recruits were Christians, amongst which the

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

were the largest contingent besides the Greeks and

Syriac Christians Syriac Christianity (, ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a branch of Eastern Christianity of which formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expressed in the Classical Syriac language, a var ...

Armenians in labour battalions

Armenians did not serve in the armed forces in the Ottoman Empire until Young Turk Revolution. On 25 February 1915, following the defeat of the Ottomans in the

Battle of Sarikamish The Battle of Sarikamish was an engagement between the Russian Empire, Russian and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empires during World War I. It took place from December 22, 1914, to January 17, 1915, as part of the Caucasus campaign. The battle resul ...

,Kaiser, Hilmar (2002). Kieser, Hans-Lukas; Schaller, Dominik J. (eds.). p.193 the Ottoman General Staff released the War Minister

Enver Pasha İsmâil Enver (; ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, convicted war criminal who was a p ...

's ''Directive 8682'' which stated that as a result of Armenian attacks on soldiers and the stockpiling of bombs in Armenian houses, "Armenians shall strictly not be employed in mobile armies, in mobile and stationary gendarmeries, or in any armed services." Enver Pasha explained this decision as "out of fear that they would collaborate with the Russians." The Armenians which before were deployed in the Battle of Sarikamish were disarmed and included into the labor battalions. Traditionally, the Ottoman Army only drafted non-Muslim males between 20 and 45 years old into the regular army. Younger (15–20) and older (45–60) non-Muslim soldiers had always been used as logistical support through the labour battalions. Conditions for the Armenian labourers were harsh. They had little food, and guards beat them frequently. Many suffered from disease. Before February, some of the Armenian recruits were utilized as labourers (''hamals''); they would ultimately be executed.

Greeks in labour battalions

Anatolian Greeks, like the Armenians, were forced into labour battalions. Christians were first drafted in 31 March Incident. The government was ambivalent about drafting Christians: on one hand, they needed a large army with conflicts and war brewing on all fronts; on the other hand, many Ottomans believed that Christians were sympathetic to the Christian nations that the Ottoman Empire was fighting (for example, during the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

). By 1915, most Greek men of army age had been conscripted into labour battalions. They maintained tunnels, built roads, and worked on farms. They had little food and wore tattered clothes. A foreign consul said this of Greek labourers in Konya: Men in the labour battalions died quickly. For example, approximately 80% of the Greek labourers forced to work at İslâhiye, near Gaziantep, died. One English intelligence officer said that "the life of a Greek in a labour gang is generally about two months." Other foreigners reported that dead Greeks were thrown into

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

s, with as many as six bodies piled in a single grave. In 1921, Turkish authorities made false birth certificates declaring Greek orphans to be older than they actually were. In this way, teenage boys were also conscripted into labour battalions. Even

Mark Lambert Bristol Mark Lambert Bristol (April 17, 1868 – May 13, 1939) was a rear admiral in the United States Navy. Biography He was born on April 17, 1868, in Glassboro, New Jersey. Bristol graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1887. During the Spa ...

, who had a notably pro-Turkish bias, reported that the Greek men in labour battalions were "treated like animals." Two memoirs depict the experiences of Greeks in labour battalions.

Elias Venezis Elias Venezis (; March 4, 1904 – August 3, 1973) is the pseudonym of Elias Mellos (), a major Greek novelist. He was born in 1904 in Ayvalık (Kydonies) in Asia Minor and died in Athens in 1973. He wrote many books, of which the most famous ...

, who survived the labour battalions, wrote about his experience in '' Number 31328: The Book of Slavery''. American author

Thea Halo Thea Halo (born 1941) is an American writer and painter of Assyrian and Pontic Greek heritage. Born in New York City, she is the 8th child of Abraham and Sano Halo (original name Euthemia "Themia", Pontic Greek: Ευθυμία). Thea began writi ...

, daughter of genocide survivor Sano Halo, wrote about her mother's experiences in the book '' Not Even My Name''. Sano Halo, a Pontian Greek, recalled that her father and grandfather had been taken to the labour battalions when she was a young girl. Her father escaped and returned to the family, but her grandfather never came home.

Depictions

The Greek novelist

later described the situation in his work '' The Number 31328: The Book of Slavery'' (). According to his account, of the 3000 "conscripted" into Venezis' labour brigade, only 23 survived. Leyla Neyzi has published a study of the diary of

Yaşar Paker Yaşar may refer to: *Yaşar (name), a Turkish given name and surname, including a list of people with the name *Yaşar (singer) Murat Yaşar Günaçgün (born 5 April 1970), known by the mononym Yaşar, is a Turkish pop music artist. Life a ...

, a member of the

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

community of early 20th century Angora/

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

who was drafted to the Labour Battalions twice, first during the

Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) The Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 was fought between Greece and the Turkish National Movement during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I, between 15 May 1919 and 14 October 1922. This conflict was a par ...

and then again during World War II, a war in which Turkey did not take part. Neyzi's paper on the basis of Paker's diary published by

Jewish Social Studies Jewish Social Studies is a quarterly U.S. based journal. It was established in 1939, by the Conference on Jewish Relations, later known as the Conference on Jewish Social Studies. Its editor was the American philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen. ...

presents an overall picture for the conditions in these battalions, which were composed entirely of non-Muslims.

Dido Sotiriou Dido Sotiriou (née Pappa; alternative spellings: ''Dido Sotiriu'', ''Dido Sotiriyu''; Greek: Διδώ Σωτηρίου; 18 February 1909 – 23 September 2004)Born on 18 February 1911 according to other sources (Kalimerhaba, p. 808) was a Greek n ...

in her anti-war novel ''

Farewell Anatolia ''Farewell Anatolia'' () is one of the most well-known novels of Dido Sotiriou. It is a historical fiction book set during World War I and the subsequent Greco-Turkish War. It was first published in Athens in 1962 and has been translated into sev ...

'' describes the harsh conditions of the labour battalions through the experiences of the protagonist.

Overview

Armenians in labour battalions

Greeks in labour battalions

Depictions

References

Further reading

Notes

See also